Roxi
Active member
I LOVE hiking! But there's one hike on the NH48 I had been dreading for a long time - Owl's Head. Everyone I've talked with who has done it has said, "It's a LONG slog, no views at the top, wasn't fun, wouldn't do it again." They also told me not to leave it until last. Great! I had 8 to go and as much as I enjoy solo hiking, I didn't want to do this one alone.
My ex-husband has turned into my knight in shining armor. He offered to do Owl's Head with me, in part because he needed it too, and in part because he probably didn't know what he was getting himself into.
So Saturday we checked the weather and with only a 30% chance of rain we headed to Lincoln Woods. We were on the trail by 9:30 and the first 3 miles to where the Pemi Wilderness begins flew by.
Remember the narrator from the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons? Imagine his voice saying, "Missing your turn, or How to Make Owl's Head even longer!" We actually saw the sign for the Franconia Brook Trail, but since we are both visually challenged (the phrase, "the blind leading the blind" applies whenever Larry and I hike together) we managed to miss the arrow that pointed to the left. Instead we saw the arrow that pointed straight ahead. Feeling really strong and energetic, we turbo-hiked ourselves another 2 miles right up to the intersection of the Wilderness Trail and Bondcliff Trail where we went, "Whoops! How'd we get here?" and turned around. So having added an additional 4 miles to the hike right at the start, we knew we were in for a very long day.
The trails were beautiful. The stream crossings were tame, although poles helped with crossing some, including the extra one we didn't really need to do, but threw in for good measure anyway (remember "the blind leading the blind?") Mud crossings were actually more challenging than the streams. We nibbled and drank along the way to keep our energy levels up. After hiking 12 miles rather than 8, we arrived at the base of the slide. Thank you to whoever carved arrows into the trees. We actually managed to see those!
The Owl's Head slide is not only a noun, it's also a verb. The slide does, both up and down. Larry and I both thought it was more challenging and more dangerous than the North Tripyramid slide. We kept a healthy distance between us as rocks dislodged left and right risking injury to the person below. You'd think with all the rocks coming down, the summit would erode enough to take this mountain off the list. No such luck! Occasionally we stopped and turned around to look at the spectacular view of the east side of Franconia Ridge. It really was neat to see the east side of Flume, Liberty, Lincoln, etc. Upon reaching the top, we hung a left at the first summit* with cairn, walked along a path to the second summit*, which had a smaller rock pile, but from which everything went down, and vowed that the next time we're out this way, we'll walk on the trails AROUND this mountain instead of UP it!
*note - we later discovered that we had reached the old summit, and not the new one. The new one requires bushwhacking. See description in new 2007 AMC Guide. Fortunately the old summit still counts! Thank Goddess!
At this point (13 miles into the day) I had three very large and very painful blisters. It tends to happen whenever I hike something really steep no matter what boots I wear. The good thing about hiking back down the treacherous slide was that I was so focused on not killing myself, I totally forgot about the painful blisters!
After surviving both directions of the slide, I relaxed my vigilance on the Lincoln Brook trail once more, and promptly tripped over something, landing face first on the only rock sticking up within ten feet of anything. Larry is not only a knight, he also doubles as a medical boy scout (he must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night before). He took one look at the blood and whipped out his first aid kit. He assessed the damage, stopped the bleeding, applied antiseptic to the cuts, and monitored my vital signs (sense of humor vs. irritability) during the 8 miles back to the car. I think he viewed monitoring those particular vital signs as vital to HIS survival.
Walking more slowly, we arrived back at 7:20. 22 miles in less than 10 hours. Not bad! I can now check Owl's Head off my list and never have to go up or down that slide again. In addition to being tickled PINK about that, I'm also BLACK & BLUE, and have an upper lip that rivals Angelina Jolie's. Every hike is an adventure. This one was a comedy of errors that created lots of humorous memories. Had I known my hike to Owl's Head would turn out the way it did, I wouldn't have worried about it for the reasons I did. I would have worried about it for entirely different reasons! But in the end I truly enjoyed this hike, and can laugh about it for many years to come, although I doubt I will ever do it again. Owl's Head is DONE!
My ex-husband has turned into my knight in shining armor. He offered to do Owl's Head with me, in part because he needed it too, and in part because he probably didn't know what he was getting himself into.
So Saturday we checked the weather and with only a 30% chance of rain we headed to Lincoln Woods. We were on the trail by 9:30 and the first 3 miles to where the Pemi Wilderness begins flew by.
Remember the narrator from the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons? Imagine his voice saying, "Missing your turn, or How to Make Owl's Head even longer!" We actually saw the sign for the Franconia Brook Trail, but since we are both visually challenged (the phrase, "the blind leading the blind" applies whenever Larry and I hike together) we managed to miss the arrow that pointed to the left. Instead we saw the arrow that pointed straight ahead. Feeling really strong and energetic, we turbo-hiked ourselves another 2 miles right up to the intersection of the Wilderness Trail and Bondcliff Trail where we went, "Whoops! How'd we get here?" and turned around. So having added an additional 4 miles to the hike right at the start, we knew we were in for a very long day.
The trails were beautiful. The stream crossings were tame, although poles helped with crossing some, including the extra one we didn't really need to do, but threw in for good measure anyway (remember "the blind leading the blind?") Mud crossings were actually more challenging than the streams. We nibbled and drank along the way to keep our energy levels up. After hiking 12 miles rather than 8, we arrived at the base of the slide. Thank you to whoever carved arrows into the trees. We actually managed to see those!
The Owl's Head slide is not only a noun, it's also a verb. The slide does, both up and down. Larry and I both thought it was more challenging and more dangerous than the North Tripyramid slide. We kept a healthy distance between us as rocks dislodged left and right risking injury to the person below. You'd think with all the rocks coming down, the summit would erode enough to take this mountain off the list. No such luck! Occasionally we stopped and turned around to look at the spectacular view of the east side of Franconia Ridge. It really was neat to see the east side of Flume, Liberty, Lincoln, etc. Upon reaching the top, we hung a left at the first summit* with cairn, walked along a path to the second summit*, which had a smaller rock pile, but from which everything went down, and vowed that the next time we're out this way, we'll walk on the trails AROUND this mountain instead of UP it!
*note - we later discovered that we had reached the old summit, and not the new one. The new one requires bushwhacking. See description in new 2007 AMC Guide. Fortunately the old summit still counts! Thank Goddess!
At this point (13 miles into the day) I had three very large and very painful blisters. It tends to happen whenever I hike something really steep no matter what boots I wear. The good thing about hiking back down the treacherous slide was that I was so focused on not killing myself, I totally forgot about the painful blisters!
After surviving both directions of the slide, I relaxed my vigilance on the Lincoln Brook trail once more, and promptly tripped over something, landing face first on the only rock sticking up within ten feet of anything.
Larry is not only a knight, he also doubles as a medical boy scout (he must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night before). He took one look at the blood and whipped out his first aid kit. He assessed the damage, stopped the bleeding, applied antiseptic to the cuts, and monitored my vital signs (sense of humor vs. irritability) during the 8 miles back to the car. I think he viewed monitoring those particular vital signs as vital to HIS survival. Walking more slowly, we arrived back at 7:20. 22 miles in less than 10 hours. Not bad! I can now check Owl's Head off my list and never have to go up or down that slide again. In addition to being tickled PINK about that, I'm also BLACK & BLUE, and have an upper lip that rivals Angelina Jolie's.
Every hike is an adventure. This one was a comedy of errors that created lots of humorous memories. Had I known my hike to Owl's Head would turn out the way it did, I wouldn't have worried about it for the reasons I did. I would have worried about it for entirely different reasons! But in the end I truly enjoyed this hike, and can laugh about it for many years to come, although I doubt I will ever do it again. Owl's Head is DONE!
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